First Look: Billy Porter Makes Directorial Debut With Trans Coming-of-Age Dramedy ‘Anything’s Possible’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorBilly Porter is known for being in front of the camera — most famously as Pray Tell on “Pose” and recently delivering a gender-bending twist on everyone’s favorite fairy godmother in Amazon’s musical movie “Cinderella.”Now, the Emmy-winning actor is stepping behind the camera to make his feature film directorial debut with “Anything’s Possible,” a John Hughes-esque coming-of-age dramedy about trans high school senior Kelsa (trans newcomer Eva Reign), who is navigating her first boyfriend, Khal (“Katy Keene” actor Abubakr Ali), friendship and family life with her single mom (Renée Elise Goldsberry).“I ain’t Barbra Streisand yet,” Porter tells me, laughing. “It’s like, let me do one thing at a time.
Let me direct something first. Then I’ll direct something and be in it too.” In “Anything’s Possible,” the spotlight is on Reign, seen here in an exclusive first look at the film.
A native of Missouri, Reign was working as a journalist in New York City before she pursued acting. “It felt kind of strange walking into all of this because everyone else in the cast, they’ve all gone to like Carnegie Mellon or Yale, and they’ve been on Broadway,” Reign tells me. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I took classes in the Village.’”Like Netflix’s much buzzed about “Heartstopper,” “Anything’s Possible” is about LGBTQ joy.
The trauma often portrayed on film and television when it comes to trans stories is nowhere to be found in this world.“This is an aspirational story.
